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Betty Award winner Mike Tan has acted in a lot of shows — everything from Vertigo’s Travels With My Aunt to all those oddly experimental productions he participated inmore than half a decade as a member of Theatre Junction’s Resident Artist Company. Now, in Cowboy Versus Samurai, which opens Thursday at Motel, Tan is experiencing something new: Namely, performing in a play where there are more Asian characters than white guys.

Vermilion Energy Inc., a Calgary company with operations in Canada, Australia, Ireland, France, Netherlands and Germany, is entering a new arena — the United States — it revealed Monday. While reporting third-quarter results that matched analyst expectations, the company announced it would spend $11.1 million to buy a net 27,200 hectares of mainly undeveloped land in the Powder River basin of northeastern Wyoming prospective for tight oil development. It didn’t reveal who the seller was.

CALGARY — A $1.4-billion US pipeline investment will better connect U.S. Rockies gas with Veresen Inc.’s proposed Oregon liquefied natural gas export project, the Calgary-based company announced Monday. But the U.S. gas won’t likely displace Canadian gas that is also being earmarked for export from the Jordan Cove LNG project, Veresen president and chief executive Don Althoff said on a conference call.

Inspired by those rough-riding rodeo cowboys but not willing to risk a ruptured disk? The mechanical bull might be for you. But coaching nervous fairgoers through the faux rodeo ride takes a smooth-talker with a knack for putting people at ease. Enter Loyd Herrington. The professional bullride operator from Houston, Texas, has been touring the U.S. and Canada for six years with his quirky gig comprised of equal parts emcee, personal coach and standup comic. The Herald caught up with Herrington for the scoop on what it takes to run one of the most notorious rides on the midway.

Enthusiasm shines through professional reserve when Trent Yanko explains the subterranean rocket science he uses to reopen the Turner Valley black gold reservoir. Deep and horizontal barely begin to describe his designer wells. To visualize the underground trails blazed by modern drilling, first look at that office supply store, says the engineer, pointing down from his president’s suite at Legacy Oil and Gas Inc. Then imagine a sculpture in steel pipe that starts at the store’s parking lot and soars over seven blocks of downtown Calgary to his 44th-floor picture window.

At The Mirage hotel in Las Vegas, one can check out 16 different eateries, a spa, pool, see dolphins, gamble, stare at the giant 20,000-gallon saltwater aquarium behind the front desk, watch the volcano erupt out front or patronize several shows, such as Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles Love.

Since the beginning of humankind, man ran. But he did not run for medals, for trophies, for a podium finish. He ran to escape his enemies. He ran to find food. He ran to deliver messages. He ran across creeks, through forests, and up and down mountains. He ran to survive.

CALGARY — A New York-based holding company plans to take Wenzel Downhole Tools Ltd. of Calgary private in a deal that values the company at $98.8 million including about $16 million in debt. Wenzel announced late Monday that a special board committee recommended that shareholders sell their stock to a subsidiary of Basin Tools L.P., a division of Basin Holdings of New York, for $2.25, a 31 per cent premium over the three-month average price.

Toxic chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and ethylene glycol (antifreeze) are among those pumped underground to help release natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, according to a database operated by the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission. Environment Canada wants gas companies to fully disclose what fluids they inject deep underground during fracking, a process that fractures shale rock with tonnes of sand, water and chemicals injected at high pressure to get the gas out.